Ofstad Scholar to Discuss Linguistic Expertise in the Job Market

As part of the Ofstad Visiting Scholar Program, alumna Christine Knapp will present a lecture at 12 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Student Union Building Conference Room 3000.

Knapp is a seasoned linguist and Truman alumna who has applied her expertise in a variety of fields, from public education to tech and human resources. During her time at an HR tech startup, she crafted and implemented natural language processing rules to reduce recruitment bias and increase candidate pool quality in published job descriptions. She also constructed proprietary taxonomies to help data scientists better understand labor market and hiring trends. Before pivoting to the tech industry, Knapp used her linguistics knowledge as a public-school teacher to better serve her K-12 ESOL students.

In her lecture Knapp will explore how linguistic expertise is shaping roles in taxonomy, data science, natural language processing, product management and user experience. She will demystify the linguistic job title in tech and share practical tips for navigating the job market. She will also discuss how to decode job descriptions and apply linguistic skills in today’s evolving tech landscape.